Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.

1) Congress will not support any idea you have, and will actively oppose it on the off chance you might do something useful.
2) Big business will lobby against it, and you.
3) Half the internet will consider you an uninformed, idiotic, paid shill, without actually reading any of your proposals.
4) The other half of the internet will think you went too far, or not far enough.

That's a logical answer, but the flaw is assuming that *fixing* the system was ever a genuine goal in the first place. The only reason for toothless laws like the America Invents Act of 2011 is for appearances only. If they actually fixed laws every generation, there would be far less profit in litigation and it would significantly lower the legal burdens on businesses, especially small ones. While this seems like a good outcome to most of us, it's a nightmare scenario for the lawyers and lobbyists who would find themselves milking a dry cow.

Claiming that bad solutions are fine because good solutions are politically impossible only works if you first attempted to get the good solution through. Assuming it doesn't is just a tactic for justifying pushing through bad legislation, or worse yet "executive orders." This is common practice with the current administration.